Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

Possible Tools

I will consider the following tools for my Inquiry:
observations, questionnaires, interviewing, trialling and focus groups


observations
(wikipedia) Observation is either an activity of a living being, such as a human, consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using scientific instruments. The term may also refer to any data collected during this activity. An observation can also be the way you look at things or when you look at something.




Questionnaires
(wikipedia) A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case.




Interviewing
(wikipedia) An interview is a conversation between two people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.




Trial and error
(wikipedia) Trial and error, or trial by error, is an experimental method of problem solving, repair, tuning, or obtaining knowledge. "Learning doesn't happen from failure itself but rather from analyzing the failure, making a change, and then trying again."




Focus groups
(wikipedia) A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members.

Ethics for teachers

As a freelance dance teacher I knew of ethics, but the ethics I personally use are just through general knowledge and experience.  As bad as it sounds I have never looked into ethics, however, I believe that the ethics I use meet requirements.  I know that in a school environment there needs to be a stricter approach and so I looked into a few different codes of professional ethics and found the following two links useful:




This one is very clear and would be similar to one produced by any school


http://www.teachers.org.uk/files/active/0/NUT-Code-of-Professional-Ethics.pdf



This one, although American, states the different areas of ethics used by teachers, namely:
towards students, practices and performance, professional colleagues, parents and community.


http://www.aaeteachers.org/index.php/about-us/aae-code-of-ethics

Changes and My Inquiry Direction

I have decided that my focus should be on something that will benefit my career, rather than thinking what may teachers want to know? This should be i want to know? (may also benefit others)

My proposed career is to go into teaching in the education sector, but what differences would there be from my current employment, in dance schools?

I brainstormed my ideas :

The Journey

I have been wondering why this course has been so difficult to get going with (especially this module), but having spoke with Alan the other day it has become much clearer.  I was confused by myself? Why did I find it difficult to get going on this course? It is for a DEGREE! 


Alan explained that this course is something I am not used to.  I am used to being taught...waiting to be taught.  This course is part of a journey, from used to being taught - to teaching myself and eventually, beyond this course, I hope to be the teacher! It is about learning something for yourself and this transformation was hard for me to grasp at first, but now I feel my learning is falling into place.


I hope this helps if any of you have similar feelings, as it has really helped me.

Finalising my reward title

So after careful consideration and not wanting to limit my award title I have decided on:

BA (Hons) In Professional Practice in Dance and Education.

I previously posted about my award title, saying that I didn't want to limit it and so I think this is a perfect balance.  I hope to go on to teaching dance in secondary education, which my award title covers.  Another option is to go into primary education and, like Michelle said in her post, this title shows I have dance experience and it also carries on from my 'National Diploma In Professional Dance'.  The education part of the title will be the next step in my career, whether it be primary or secondary.

Any more thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Developing Questions

It is strange to believe that at the beginning of this module it was hard to think of questions, mainly because I was thinking too hard !  Now narrowing it down to one question is difficult.  I have thought about this long and hard - and it has been hard...I have been into my local secondary school and also thought about my current employment to try and inspire me.  After thinking about my proposed career, teaching in Secondary schools, I started  to think about the changes I would need to make.  Whilst volunteering at my local secondary school I decided to make notes on differences I came across between what the teachers do at the school and what I do when I teach at local dance schools.  A big one I came up with was Motivation! Every teacher needs to motivate their pupils but I would like to look into it in greater depth.  This is because I currently teach at dance schools where the majority choose to attend out of enjoyment, whereas from previous experience in secondary schools, years 7-9  have to participate whether they want to or not....What methods of motivation are used for those who have no interest in dance whatsoever?!  I hope to look into methods of motivation to benefit the next stage in my career, and I hope this will be of benefit to others too, who are wanting to do the same.

Teaching Routes

The other day I went into my old high school to talk about my next step after completing BAPP.  With the talk of GTPs being stopped / cut / reduced I was getting worried as I think this may be the only option available to me?.  I have a house to pay for and I could not afford not to work.  Why is it getting so hard? Anyway, I was told it is hard to get onto a PGCE without experience never mind a GTP! So I was advised to start volunteering and to apply for teaching assistant roles to help me gain experience in schools.  So this may help others wanting to do the same.  Going into the school on a weekly basis will give me experience and also enable me to carry out my Inquiry there.

Task 4d - Award Title

Please Help! 


The award title is a very big decision to make and I am not sure how specific it should be.  The handbook gave examples of 'Musical Theatre', 'Performing Arts', 'Arts Management'.  The examples are quite general, I think this is a better option rather than being specific.  I want to go for quite a general title as I don't want to limit my options.  I am unsure what direction I want to take, I know I want to teach full time but not sure if that is in primary or secondary.  Obviously in Primary you teach everything and if my award title was in 'dance' then I don't think it is suitable.  I am more likely to go into secondary education to teach dance as this is what I have trained to do but I want to keep my options open.  Is the title in 'education' very vague? I think it is and I am looking to do my inquiry in dance education in schools so something with dance in the title seems more appropriate?  This needs more thought (and help please?) So if anyone has an idea it would be much appreciated :)  Thanks 

The award I seek as a result of doing
this programme is BA (Hons) Professional Practice in xxxxx
xxxxxxxx”

Task 4b - SIG

I currently teach part time and I am hoping to teach full time.  I am looking into teaching GCSE dance in secondary education.  The reader says that the inquiry should be something that will benefit your work, so I will be looking at dance in secondary schools.  I have contacted my old teacher, and I will be going into a few classes and hope to carry out my research there.  


I have joined LinkedIn and hope to discuss my similar interests with the group Liam created.  I have also added a few Bappers on Facebook and hope to join groups on there.  


Feel free to add My Facebook if you think we could be SIGs :)

Task 4a - Questions

Looking back at task 2d it helped as a starting point and it has made me ask more questions..


I am a dance teacher hoping to teach full time in the future.  I trained at professional dance college to become a professional dancer.  However, circumstances changed and I now teach dance, which is extremely rewarding for me.  I trained at a local dance school, my teacher never went to dance college and so had no experiences or history about the dance industry.  I wouldn't change anything I have done, and I know I could influence peoples decisions to help them take the right path - as i would say i learnt the hard way.  As a teacher I thought I should come up with questions solely on teaching but having thought more about it I also think it is beneficial to look at dance as a whole even though I don't perform professionally.  I teach students who want to progress onto dance college and with more knowledge about the dance world, i would be more beneficial to those aspiring dancers.  Doing my inquiry based on teaching would also help the people I teach and hopefully other teachers and the dance schools i work for.  So I am going to look at questions from both sides as I am unsure which path i will take.




Should a dance school / college be run as a business or as more of a hobby?
I auditioned for colleges where you could tell it was all run for a profit only and everything was done for money, and the principal was not ever a dancer or even seemed one bit interested in dance.  I went to others where the principal was a dancer and was passionate  about producing dancers that got jobs.


Do exams actually help a dancer wanting to perform or are they more beneficial to those who want to continue through to teaching?


Is there a certain look that employers go for when employing dancers?


Should children start dancing at such an early age?


What could / would / should you do if you knew there was a pushy parent and the child was unhappy about dancing but was being forced into it?


Should Scholarships really be given on ability or be means tested? As this could result in a family not being able to fund their childs career when that is all they want to do.  Also a family may be very 'well off' and can easily afford it but don't need to pay due to the child receiving a scholarship.


What is the best way to keep students enthusiasm?


How often should shows be put on at a local dance school?


If a student is at a high standard could they go straight into performing instead of attending full time college?


How involved in a dance school should you be if you are only one of the teachers?


Should a teacher continue their training and developing practice to be the best they can?


Is dance / performing arts looked upon as an 'easy' subject?
I remember when I took dance as a subject at high school, it was known that others had taken it as an easy subject (more practical than theory)


If this is the case how do you make sure they take it seriously?




I have emailed a few people who are in the education sector and will posts responses when they are received